Along the Way
by RavenTempestShadowhunter
Summary: Thalia and Nico went through a nasty breakup at the end of high school. Now, seven years later, Nico is a police detective in New York. When Thalia goes missing, Nico is assigned to the case. As he looks for her, Nico realizes maybe he's not quite as over her as he thought. AU, Thalico, Thaluke, Percabeth, Reyna/Hazel, Jasper, rated for torture, swearing, abuse, and adult content.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day.**

**Chapter 1**

"I can't believe this."

"I saw you with her, Nico. You're never around, you lied to me, and now you're hanging around with that slut!"

"Thalia, she's a cheerleader, they practice on the field at the same time we do. I'm not cheating on you!"

"It's a fucking big field, you don't have to talk to her!"

Nico ran a hand through his hair and turned around, looking for something to throw. Drew had cornered him at the water cooler after football practice. Thalia had come along when Drew was standing just a little too close, her hand on his arm, and Nico had been smiling out of courtesy. He knew it had looked bad, but he thought Thalia would trust him. He'd been wrong.

He turned back to her. "You know what, I'm done. This isn't working." He opened the door and left, slamming it behind him. Thalia didn't try to stop him.

* * *

Seven Years Later

"Coffee," Reyna announced as she walked into Nico's office. She put the styrofoam cup on his desk and took a seat across from him.

"You're a goddess." Nico picked up his head from where he'd been resting it against the back of his chair and took his feet off the desk.

Reyna shrugged. "I thought the best detective in New York deserved something better than the shit they have here."

Nico took a sip and chuckled. "What do you want, Reyna?"

"Can't I just spend some time with my best friend?"

"You got me coffee, you called me 'the best detective in New York', which is true but not official, and you called me your best friend, which isn't true and we both know it. What do you want?"

Reyna gave him a sweet smile, which immediately put him on guard. "I was wondering if you'd do the paper work for the last case."

Nico leaned his head back and chuckled. "Please, Nico, I have a date tonight, I don't have time."

"So, you want me to do all the paperwork for a case so that you can go out with my sister."

Reyna paused and thought for a moment. "Yes."

Nico rolled his eyes, but leaned forward again and took another sip of his coffee. "You're lucky I like you."

"And we both know how rare that is."

"You owe me," Nico warned.

She nodded. "Okay."

"And you have to work on it while you're here today."

"Of course."

Nico opened the file folder on his desk.

"It's not like there's a lot to report, anyway. It was an easy case."

He laughed. "Easy for us. Not so easy for the guy who got killed."

Reyna picked up a picture from the file. It was of a pretty blonde girl with blue eyes. She was smiling like there was nothing wrong. "She looks so normal, too. You would never expect her to be so psychotic." She dropped the photo. "She murdered her boyfriend. What kind of a fucked up childhood would you have to have to do something like that?"

Nico laughed. "I can think of a couple exes who would love to take a swing or two at me."

"Yeah, a swing. Not a bullet." Nico picked up his pen and started writing. He'd always preferred to do this on paper, even though it was fine to do it on the computer. "You never talk about your exes."

"They aren't important," Nico muttered, not looking up from the paper.

"Yeah, but I'm your friend. Isn't this what friends do? Bitch about their exes?"

Nico looked up and sighed. "Fine. But my exes are pretty boring."

Reyna raised an eyebrow, and Nico cursed her for being able to raise just one. He'd never been able to pull it off.

"You just told me that some of them would like to take a swing at you," she deadpanned.

"They would. That doesn't make them interesting."

She grinned. "Does to me." Nico rolled his eyes. "Come on, just one story. I'll tell you one of mine."

"You first."

"Fine" She thought for a moment. "There was this one guy who had three piercings in his bottom lip and one on his top. And two of them were spikes. My best friend thought he was abusive 'cause I always came to school with cuts on my lips."

Nico glanced up at her and smirked. "I can beat it." She raised that damn eyebrow again. "Remember Addy?"

"That creepy goth girl from two years ago?"

He nodded. "Did I ever tell you why we broke up."

"No."

"I found out she pierced her…" he cleared his throat awkwardly and glanced down.

"Her what?"

Nico gestured vaguely at her. "You know."

"I don't know."

He cleared his throat again. "Her lady parts," he mumbled, and gestured again.

Reyna's face twisted into an expression of disgust and Nico began to laugh. "God, I didn't need to know that. Damn it, di Angelo, she goes to my gym. Do you know what I'm going to think now when I see her on the treadmill?"

"We didn't last long after that," Nico said, still laughing.

"If that was two years ago, I'd love to hear about the girlfriends you had in high school." At Nico's apparent confusion she rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, everyone knows that your worst relationships are always in high school. So let's hear it."

Nico looked down at the paper again, trying to hide his scowl. "Don't go there, Reyna."

He'd only had one relationship in high school, and look how well that had turned out.

* * *

"_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me; my shallow heart's the only thing that's beating…"_

Thalia groaned as she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. A homeless man across the street gave her a dirty look, the phone had woken him up. She stuck her tongue out at him and he hid his head under his dirty blanket again, grumbling.

Juggling her coffee in one hand and making sure her bag didn't fall off her shoulder, she pulled out the phone from her pocket. When she saw the caller ID she nearly groaned again.

"Hey, Annabeth," she said.

"Don't you 'Hey Annabeth' me. Where are you?"

Thalia closed her eyes briefly. It was nearly eleven on a Wednesday night, and she'd been working since nine that morning. Her feet hurt and the only reason she was still awake was the giant coffee she was holding in her left hand.

"I'm walking home."

"You're walking home?!" Annabeth yelped, and Thalia winced and held the phone away from her ear. "What are you thinking?! Don't you know who comes out at this time of night?!"

"Homeless guys who can't mind their own damn business," Thalia answered, glaring daggers at the homeless man across the street again. He had come out from under his blanket again and was listening to half of their conversation.

"Where are you? I'll come pick you up."

As much as she didn't want to walk, she disliked the idea of getting driven by Annabeth even more. Four blocks in a car with nowhere to run to while she was getting lectured. At least at their apartment she could hide in her room.

"I'll be fine, Annabeth. It's just a few blocks."

"It's dangerous!"

_No more dangerous than living with you sometimes_, Thalia thought. "It isn't dangerous. I'll be right there, I promise. Besides, the fresh air is good for me."

Annabeth gave a nervous laugh. "Fresh air? You realize where we are, right?"

Thalia laughed too. "I'll be home soon. Don't eat all the Chinese, okay?" Wednesday was their Chinese food night.

"Promise."

"Bye, Annabeth." She hung up before Annabeth could respond. She sighed. She needed a shower. The restaurant business might make enough money to pay for the apartment, but she wasn't so sure about the water bill. She always came home smelling like fried food.

Thalia heard something behind her and turned around. The homeless man was still there, hiding under his blanket, but there was no one else. It must have been him, she decided.

She kept walking. A few minutes later she heard the sound again. Glancing over her shoulder, she walked faster. This wasn't a good neighborhood.

The sound became louder, and just when she had realized it was footsteps something hit her on the head and everything went black.

**Hello! I finally have the first chapter of this story up, and the second one is half done. I've been trying to get this up for a few weeks now.**

**If you've read my other stories, welcome back. If you haven't, I'm Jez, nice to meet you. I update on Mondays, so if you don't have an account and you can't follow the story, just check back on Mondays. Unlike Roses On Your Grave, this isn't a pre-written story, so I might not be able to update every Monday, but I will try.**

**For anyone who is confused, Reyna is bisexual. If you have a problem with that, I'm not forcing you to read this story.**

**The sister Nico is talking about is Hazel, not Bianca. Jason, Piper, and Leo will make an appearance, but they won't be the same age as Hazel and Reyna.**

**I started a Quote of the Week last week, and it will be the same on all my stories. It's something that I've heard around the house that sounds really weird when said by itself (and usually in context, too).**

**Quote of the Week: "Once again, I have onion ring in my cleavage." Thank you so much for sharing, mom. I needed to know that. She also felt the need to take the onion ring out while we were in the middle of a restaurant.**

**Review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Mrs-diAngelo25: Your review made my day. Thank you. I hadn't thought of Hazel/Reyna until I started writing the chapter, and I wanted Reyna to not be able to do the paperwork because she had a date. And then I thought that it would be even worse for her if the person she was dating was Nico's little sister, who he's protective of. Of course he's a nice person (sometimes) and he did the paperwork anyway.**

**infinity heart star lightning: Yeah, much different. It's actually a lot different than most of my stories. I don't usually do ones about adults as opposed to teenagers in high school.**

**SummerSpirit18: Thank you! I hope you come back next Monday. You're excused, just don't miss anything important.**

**iceflight12787: Thanks, I hope you like this chapter too.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson. **

**Chapter 2**

Annabeth drummed her fingers on the couch. It was later than she wanted to be awake, but she had to stay up until Thalia got home. Which still hadn't happened.

Annabeth and Thalia had been best friends since they were eighteen. Annabeth had been going to NYU and Thalia worked at a coffee shop near campus that had the best lattes Annabeth had ever tasted. Thalia hadn't gone to college, she hadn't had the money for it and she didn't really want to anyway. Now she worked at a jewelry store, while Annabeth had a master's degree in architecture and had her own company. It wasn't very big yet, but Thalia insisted that with Annabeth's skill it would be in no time.

They'd been living together for almost a year, but they'd been talking about changing it. Annabeth's boyfriend wanted her to move in with him, and part of her wanted to say yes. Of course, the other part of her knew that if she did move out Thalia probably wouldn't be able to afford the bills by herself, and would either have to rent a different apartment or move in with her own boyfriend. And Annabeth wasn't sure Thalia was ready for that.

Annabeth sighed and stood up to go into the kitchen. She pulled a glass out of the cupboard and poured herself some water. Glancing at the clock, she realized it had been an hour since she had spoken to Thalia.

She pulled out her phone and dialed.

"_Hi, this is Thalia, which you probably know since you called me, unless you're some creepy person who calls random girls. Anyway, leave a message if you want and I'll try to get back to you if I like you, but I don't check my messages too much so you might want to try again. Unless you're a creepy person, then you shouldn't._"

"_At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording you may hang up, or press one for more options. To leave a callback number press 5._" The phone beeped.

"Hey, it's me. You were supposed to be home a while ago, I'm just checking in. I'll probably be in bed when you get home, but I am going to kill you tomorrow. Try not to get yourself hurt." Annabeth hung up and sighed.

Normally she would have been more concerned, but despite all her worrying Annabeth knew that Thalia could take care of herself. She'd probably just stopped by Luke's for a while.

Annabeth shook her head, told herself she was being silly for worrying about Thalia, who'd grown up in the city, and went to bed.

* * *

_Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…_

Annabeth groaned and reached to her left to turn off her alarm clock. When she'd finally found the button and the beeping had stopped, she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds. Then she got up, got dressed in her pencil skirt and nice blouse, and went into the kitchen to get coffee.

But there wasn't any coffee.

To a normal person that would be okay, she just had to make more coffee. But it was Thalia's job to make coffee, and they both had to be at work at the same time. Which not only meant that she had to make coffee and would most likely be late to work, it meant that Thalia hadn't come home. Or she had come home and wasn't awake, which was almost worse. Thalia always woke up at a ridiculous hour of the day.

Annabeth began pouring the coffee grounds into the machine with one hand and dialing her phone with the other.

First she tried Thalia, but there was still no answer. She didn't bother leaving a message.

Then she tried Thalia's boyfriend.

"Hey, Annabeth," Luke said in a sleepy voice. He sounded as if he had just woken up. Which he probably had, he was a bar tender and he had to work late.

"Hey. I was just wondering if Thalia was with you?"

There was some rustling on the other end as if he was sitting up. "No, she's not here. Why?"

"She didn't come home last night."

"Where do you think she would have gone?" Luke sounded more awake now.

Annabeth ran a hand through her hair and glanced at the clock. She almost swore. She was going to be late. "I don't know, she called me last night and said she was coming home and then an hour later she hadn't shown up," Annabeth said, abandoning the coffee maker and grabbing her coat. She would get breakfast at Starbucks.

"Do you want me to call the police? You sound like you're in a hurry."

Her hand froze on the door knob. "The police?"

"Well yeah, she's not with you and she's not with me, but she left work last night. So unless she's cheating on me, she's missing."

"Don't you want to give her some time?"

"Annabeth." His voice sounded tired and worried at the same time. "She was supposed to be back at what, ten last night?"

"Eleven."

"And at midnight you were still sitting there waiting. Do you want me to call them, or will you?"

She let go of the door nob and started towards her car. "I'll do it."

"Okay. Just tell them everything and if they ask you to come down, skip work. You're the boss."

"I'll talk to you later, Luke." Without waiting for his response she hung up and dialed 911.

"911, what is your emergency?"

Annabeth took a deep breath and said, "My roommate is missing."

* * *

Nico rubbed his hand over his face as he made his way towards his office. He'd stayed up late the night before finishing the paperwork for their last case. Now he had to take a look at a few other cases that people wanted his help on. He was good at his job, but sometimes that wasn't a good thing.

He turned to go into the break room to get some coffee – however terrible – but changed his mind when he heard a few of the younger officers talking and laughing. He'd rather not deal with them now. They were almost always annoying. He'd rather go without coffee.

He went into his office and sat down at his desk, resting his head on his keyboard. There was someone talking on the phone in the other room, and he wanted to shut the door, but he couldn't bring himself to get up. _Why can't people just deal with there own problems for a day?_

"That's not how it works, di Angelo," came Reyna's voice from the door, and Nico realized he'd said that out loud. Reyna dropped herself into the chair across from him. "Long night?"

He lifted his head and glared at her. "I hate you. Just so you know," he said, sitting up and leaning back in his chair. "I didn't hear Hazel coming home last night. I guess your night was as long as mine."

"Yeah, but mine was better."

Nico rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to respond, but someone called Reyna's name before he could say anything.

She left the room for a moment, and Nico watched their supervisor hand her a file. Reyna nodded and opened the file to look inside, then came back into Nico's office.

"New case," she announced, throwing the file down on his desk and sitting down again.

Nico groaned. "Another one? Didn't we just finish one?"

She nodded. "Three days ago. Guess that's how it works, huh?"

"Shouldn't we have a break?" Nico mumbled.

Reyna ignored his question and said, "25 year old girl, disappeared last night. She left work and never came home. Her roommate called it in this morning."

Nico picked up the folder. "Name?"

"Thalia Grace."

He froze.

"Weird name, huh? I always thought Grace was a first name."

Nico flipped open the folder and stared at the picture inside. She didn't look any different, except that she'd dyed a few strands of her hair in the front blue. In the picture she was wearing a black t-shirt that looked better on her than should have been physically possible…

_Snap out of it_, his brain told him. _You haven't seen her in years._

_Too long_, another part of him said.

He told both parts to shut up.

"Nico?" Reyna snapped her fingers in front of his face. He looked up. "You spaced out on me."

"Yeah," he said, looking back down at the photo.

"Everything okay?"

Nico nodded. "I, uh…I used to date her."

"Seriously?" Reyna asked incredulously. "Damn, why would someone that good looking go out with you?"

"That was a while ago."

She raised an eyebrow. "Like, high school while ago?"

He put his hands over his eyes for a second. He'd tried not to think about Thalia for seven years, and now it was his job to find her. Fate was a bitch.

"Yeah. She was the only girl I dated in high school."

"Wow." They were quiet for a moment. "What happened?" Reyna asked.

Nico shook his head. "A lot of stuff. Eventually she accused me of cheating and I broke it off."

"We can give this one to someone else if you want."

"No," Nico said forcefully. "If Thalia's missing, I want to be the one to find her."

_Fuck_, he thought. _I _don't_ still like her._

_Keep telling yourself that,_ the annoying part of him said.

"Okay," Reyna interrupted. She stood up. "I'm gonna go see if I can get anything else from the guy who answered the phone." She turned and left the office.

Nico looked back down at the photo. She was smiling.

He'd always loved her smile.

**I want to make something clear that I'm not sure I mentioned in the last chapter. This story is rated M, but not because of sexual reasons. I think a lot of people think of explicit sex when they find out that a story is rated M, and that's not what this is. This story is rated M for torture, stronger language than my other stories, and for _mentions and implications_ of sex. I don't write porn.**

**I haven't even started the next chapter. I can probably get it done in a few hours, but I have to find the time. Which isn't easy for me to do. I'll try to have it done by next week, but I make no promises.**

**I handed in my short story assignment to my American Lit teacher, and I got 100. She told me she would look for writing contests for me, and that I should look into publishing. I'm very excited.**

**I'm working on a few new one-shots, those should be up next Monday. Or at least one of them will be.**

**Quote of the Week: ****"It's like Santa Clause: 'He knows what you've been Googling ". Sung to the tune of Santa Clause is Coming to Town. My teacher was explaining to us that when we search something the government can see what we search.**

******Review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**SummerSpirit18: Yeah, this story doesn't have as much Thalico in it as other ones, but I think I'll add in some flashbacks to satisfy your needs.**

**Mrs-diAngelo25: I think I'm going to enter a writing competition this year, I found one but it isn't until the spring. Which gives me time to write something for it. Then maybe I can think about publishing. Thank you, I'm sorry I took an extra week on this!**

**Arry the Banana: Thanks!**

**dont get too close: The whole cheating thing gets clearer in later chapters. Thank you!**

**Musiclover2436: I keep getting excited on Mondays, too. I'm glad you read some of my other stories, I hope you liked them!**

**Time Lord Flamel: Thank you. I'm glad that my writing style is pleasant for you.**

**FireofRiptide: Thank you, I will.**

**ShadowFallen12: I won't hold your laziness against you, I'm lazy too. I'm glad you like them, and my taste in music. Actually, the songs I mention in these stories aren't the only ones I listen to, I also like Irish folk songs and a couple pop songs.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson. **

**Chapter 3**

Reyna was talking to someone. It was a blonde haired woman. She looked nervous. She was clutching her bag as if it was her lifeline, and she almost looked like she was going to be sick.

Reyna put a hand on the woman's back and led her to Nico's office.

"This is Detective Nico di Angelo," Reyna said to the woman. "Detective, this is Annabeth Chase. She was Thalia Grace's roommate."

"Is," Annabeth interrupted. She looked at Nico. "I _am_ Thalia's roommate."

Nico nodded and stood up, clearing his throat. He held out his hand. "Thank you for coming, Miss Chase."

Annabeth tentatively took Nico's hand. "Call me Annabeth."

Nico gave her an awkward smile and sat back down. Reyna turned to open the door. "Reyna," Nico said. She looked at him over her shoulder. "Stay."

Reyna nodded and sat down. She motioned for Annabeth to sit down next to her.

"Are you questioning me?" Annabeth asked as she sat down and put her bag on the floor. "Is this an interrogation?"

Nico and Reyna chuckled. "A questioning and an interrogation are two different things," Nico said.

"Well? What's the difference?"

"A questioning is formal. It's recorded. It goes on file," Reyna explained.

"An interrogation…sounds scarier," Nico continued.

Annabeth glanced between the two of them. "So there isn't a difference."

Nico laughed and shook his head. "No, but when we tell people they're being interrogated it gets them all nervous and they're more likely to slip."

Annabeth hummed and nodded. She cast her eyes around the room. There were pictures, awards, even a diploma mounted on the wall.

"Miss Chase…"Annabeth darted her eyes toward him, "…Annabeth. Can you tell us about when you called the police?"

"Thalia got out of work around, I don't know, eleven, maybe? Ten-thirty? Anyway, I called her and she said she was on her way, but she never showed up. And the next morning I woke up and she still…" Annabeth stopped.

"Annabeth?" Nico said.

Annabeth stood up, walked behind his desk, and picked something up off the table. "Miss Chase, what…"

"You're _that _Nico di Angelo," Annabeth interrupted, holding up the picture of Nico and Thalia together.

Nico stared at her. "She told you about that?"

Annabeth shook her head, put the picture down and went to sit back down in the chair. "She didn't tell me much. Just that you broke her heart."

Nico clenched his fists and looked down at the desk. "Why don't you finish telling us about this morning?"

Annabeth gave him a look, but continued anyway. "I woke up and she still wasn't back so I called the police."

"That's it?"

She shrugged. "I called her boyfriend before I called the police. I thought maybe she was there."

Nico cleared his throat. "And what's her boyfriend's name?"

"Luke Castellan."

Nico nodded, jotting it down on a pad of paper. "What about her work? You said she came from work."

Annabeth smirked, but ignored the suddenness of his change of subject. "Yeah, she works at Cathy's Cakes, on twenty-ninth. She usually comes home around nine or ten, that's why I called her. She was late. But she said she was fine coming home on her own."

"Did she seem scared when you called her?"

Annabeth shook her head. "But Thalia never sounds scared."

Nico looked back down at the pad of paper and wrote something down, but Annabeth could still see the small smile that he was trying to hide. He looked back up at her, and the smile was gone. "What about before that? Did she ever say anything or do anything to make you think she might be afraid?"

"No. We live together but we barely ever really talk. I own a business, so I'm always at work, and when Thalia's not at work she's with Luke."

"When was the last time you talked? Besides last night."

"Well we talk every morning, we usually leave at the same time. But we don't talk much. Thalia's not much of a morning person." Annabeth paused and Nico tried to fight off the memories of Thalia in the morning. He always had to bring her coffee, she never had time to make it herself because she always got up too late. "We had a movie night two weeks ago," Annabeth continued, "but she didn't seem like she was worried about anything."

Nico nodded. "Can you tell us about other people in Thalia's life? Friends? Family?"

Annabeth gave a harsh laugh. "You must know about Thalia's family, Detective."

"Tell us anyway," Reyna said when it became clear that Nico wasn't about to say anything.

Annabeth glanced at the other detective, then looked back at Nico. "She hasn't had any contact with her mother since she was eighteen, and her dad walked out on them when Thalia was little. And like I said, she was either at work, at home, or with Luke. She talks about a girl who works with her sometimes, and this little boy who comes into the shop, but that's about it."

"What are their names?"

"Oh God, Cara? Clara? Kiara, maybe? Something like that. The little boy is Sam, I think. But he's really little. Thalia didn't know exactly how old, but she said she thought maybe six or seven. And she always said he was really sweet. I don't think he would kidnap her."

"We can't rule anything out," Reyna said. Annabeth nodded.

"I know."

Nico cleared his throat. "What about in your life?"

"I work with a lot of people, but I don't talk about Thalia to them. Just to my secretary Preston. And my boyfriend Percy."

"Has either of them ever met Thalia?"

Annabeth nodded. "Percy."

"What's Percy's last name?"

"Jackson."

"And can you think of anyone who might want to hurt Thalia? Or any reason?"

Annabeth laughed. "Thalia was terrible at making friends, but she was great at making enemies. She pissed off a lot of people. I don't think one of them would want to hurt her." Her face turned sad. "But I guess someone did, right?"

"I'm sorry."

She shook her head and cleared her throat.

Nico jotted down a few more things, then looked back up at Annabeth. "Thank you for coming in."

Reyna reached across the desk to grab the notepad. "I'll go copy this."

"Thanks."

After Reyna had left, Nico handed Annabeth a card. "Just call this number if you think of anything you think we should know, or if anything else happens."

"Thank you." She stood up and picked up her bag. At the door Annabeth turned around. "Detective."

"Hmm?"

"Thalia's mother might have been bad, but there was only one person who ever really hurt her." She shifted her bag and put her hand on the door knob. "That was you."

She opened the door and left, leaving Nico feeling like something was sitting on his chest.

* * *

Her head was pounding. The back of her skull felt like it had been split open with a sledge hammer and sewn back together by a very bad surgeon.

God, what had happened? Thalia opened her eyes slowly, grateful that there was no light. A few seconds later she realized that there was _really_ no light and she was lying on what felt like concrete with her hands tied in front of her, and she stopped being grateful and started being more than a little scared.

A door opened and Thalia squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden assault of light on her eyes. "Sleep well, beautiful?" a man's voice asked from the door. He sounded…greasy. His voice made Thalia feel dirty, like it was clinging to her skin.

Wow, they must have drugged her with some pretty heavy shit.

She opened her eyes a crack. He looked greasy, too. His hair hung in front of his eyes and he smelled like he hadn't washed in a few days. She smell more than a hint of alcohol on him, on his clothes and when he got closer on his breath as well.

He knelt in front of her and she tried not to gag.

"I don't know if you could call it sleeping."

The man laughed. "They told me you were a funny one." He grabbed her chin with a rough hand and ran his thumb down the side of her face.

"Who's they?"

He chuckled again. "Sorry, beautiful, can't tell you that."

"Where am I?" Thalia asked, trying to tear her face away. But the awkward angle coupled with her still pounding head and his surprisingly strong grip made it impossible.

He didn't answer, just drew his thumb across her bottom lip and let go of her face.

"Why did you take me?" she demanded as he stood up and started across the room. "Wait!" she called, "Why did you take me?" But he just shut the door, cutting off the light and plunging Thalia back into darkness.

**I'm sorry this took an extra week. I've decided that I'm going to have to update every other Monday from now on, or at least until I get a break from school work (which isn't likely). If I have time I might update early, but that's probably not going to happen this week, I have a big roject due in Ancient World on Thursday that I haven't even started.**

**I did upload a new story, though. It's ****called Dance and it's a Thalico high-school AU. You should go check it out. And I'm working on another new one-shot, that should be up soon. I don't know how soon, but keep an eye out.**

******I uploaded the last chapter of Roses On Your Grave about five minutes ago. I hope you go read it.**

**********VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: A girl went missing from my school almost two weeks ago. I'm not saying that any of you might see her or anything, but the police have been talking to people in Texas, and we live in New Hampshire, so it's a possibility. Her name is Abigail Hernandez, she's about 5'4" and weighs 118 pounds, she's Hispanic with light olive skin and brown hair and eyes, and she was last seen wearing black leggings or yoga pants, a gray striped, multicolored sweater, and black leather boots. Her birthday was on Saturday, she's now fifteen. If you know anything call 1-800-CALL-FBI.**

**********Quote of the Week: ********"Take your stupid narwhal." My sister talking to my brother. We were on a road trip, all three of us stuffed into the back seat. The narwhal in question is named Dave. Don't ask me why.**

******************Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**SummerSpirit18: Annabeth thought it was necessary, I guess. You're sort of right about the conspiracy, but it's not quite like that. I will say no more.  
**

**Mrs-diAngelo25: Yeah, if only it was for a small break. I think you'll like this. Maybe. Sort of.**

**invisible-demigod: Thank you!**

**dont get too close: Thank you. Yeah, don't get too excited about the guy. You don't find out much about him in this one, sorry.**

**PercyAndAnnabethLOVEBUG4EVER: Yes, master.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson.**

**Chapter 4**

"What do you think?" Reyna asked, walking into his office with her purse hanging on one shoulder. It was the day after they'd spoken to Annabeth.

Nico looked up from his computer. "I think you're late. I was about to call you. Everything okay?"

She dropped into a chair across from his desk. "My alarm clock didn't go off. I wish you'd called me, I only woke up twenty minutes ago."

"Reyna, it's eleven in the morning. What were you doing last night?" He narrowed his eyes playfully. "You know if you're cheating on my sister I'll have to shoot you."

Reyna glowered at him. "I was doing _your _paperwork."

"Hey, you owed me one."

She huffed, but didn't comment. She couldn't remind him that she'd had a reason, and he just "wanted a night off". It might have been seven years, but she could see that he still cared about his ex.

"You asked the boyfriend to come in, right?" she asked, effectively changing the topic.

"Yeah."

She sighed. "So? What do you think?"

"About the case?"

"No, dumb ass, about the donuts in the break room." Sarcasm dripped from her words.

Nico rolled his eyes and looked away from his best friend and back to his computer (where he certainly hadn't been playing Solitaire). "Thalia pissed people off, but I have a hard time believing she'd piss someone off enough for them to kidnap her or kill her. Hit her, maybe, but nothing that would last."

"So, you're guessing."

This was where they differed. Reyna liked facts. She liked proof. For Nico, his gut was enough.

"I'm not guessing. I knew Thalia, and I'm telling you, she knew where to draw the line."

"You knew her seven years ago, di Angelo."

He glanced up at her. "I knew her pretty damn well."

Reyna sighed. "Fine, but…"

A sharp _tap tap tap_ interrupted her. Nico looked up. There was a blonde man standing outside his office. Nico waved him in.

"I'm assuming you're Detective di Angelo," the man said, holding his coat to his body and standing there awkwardly.

"That's what it says on the door." Nico was very proud of his door. It said "Detective Nico di Angelo" in big gold letters. "This is my partner Reyna Ramirez-Arellano. Are you Luke Castellan?"

The man nodded.

"Sit down."

He took a seat in the chair next to Rena, the same chair Annabeth had taken the day before. Why did everyone who came into Nico's office look so nervous? He wasn't about to bite their heads off. Reyna had once told him it was his eyes, they were "all dark and scary and flashy-like" (it was a few weeks into their partnership and they'd gone out for drinks, to celebrate solving their first case – Nico didn't remember the night very well, but he sure as hell remembered the hangover the next morning).

"Tell me about Thalia," Nico said, leaning back in his chair.

"Shouldn't you already know?" Luke asked, chuckling, but his tone was slightly bitter. "Annabeth said you used to date her."

"People change in seven years."

Luke chuckled again. "Not Thalia."

_How would you know?_ Nico wanted to demand. _Did you know her seven years ago?_ But he couldn't get angry. He didn't even know why he was angry.

"Tell me what you thought of her." Nico clenched his fist under the table, but kept his voice level.

"She was…" Luke breathed out sharply, looking between Nico and Reyna. "I don't know what you want me to say."

Seriously? How dense was this guy? "What's the first thing that comes into your head when you think of her?" Reyna asked, and Nico silently thanked her.

"She's my girlfriend. And she's missing."

Nico nodded, resisting the urge to bang his head against the desk. "How did you two meet?"

"Thalia works…worked at a restaurant shop. I used to go in their every morning."

"And you asked her out?" Luke nodded. "When was that?"

"Out one-year anniversary would have been the week after next," Luke responded. He never broke eye contact, and it made Nico uneasy. I he should have been more upset.

But Nico brushed it off and asked, "Can you tell me about the people in your life, Mr. Castellan? Coworkers, friends, family…?"

"I work at a bar, I don't have a lot of coworkers. I have two brothers, but they both go to college in West Virginia."

"Did your brothers ever meet Thalia?"

"My brothers met her when they came up for Christmas. We go out with my buddy Chris sometimes, too."

"Do you think Chris might want to hurt Thalia?"

"His girlfriend might," Luke said, laughing.

He was laughing. His girlfriend was missing, he was talking about someone hurting her, and he was laughing. Nico fought to keep his emotions under control. This man was getting on his nerves. Thalia had sunk pretty low to go out with this idiot.

"What's his girlfriend's name?"

Luke stopped laughing, but the grin remained on his face. "Dude, I'm kidding. Chris wouldn't want to hurt her and neither would his girlfriend. I can't think of anyone who would."

Nico nodded. "What about at her work?"

"I don't know, I don't really go in there anymore." Luke shrugged. "Truth is I went in there once and saw Thalia. I kept going in there so I could get her to go out with me. Their food kinda sucks."

Nico's fingernails bit into his skin as he clenched his fist tighter. Reyna noticed the rage on his face. She'd worked with him long enough to recognize his micro-expressions. "Where were you the night Thalia disappeared?" she asked.

Luke turned to her, and she didn't like the way his eyes dipped south for a moment before returning to her face. "Working. Tons o' people went through the bar that night, you can talk to any of 'em. We've got a camera at every door, too, you can see when I went in and out. And you can have my time card. I didn't kidnap Thalia. Why would I kidnap Thalia?"

Reyna forced a smile onto her face. "We have to ask. Thank you for coming in. We'll call if we need anything else."

Luke nodded and stood, walking out the door without a goodbye. When he was gone Reyna turned back to Nico. "So?"

Nico shook his head. "No way he did it."

"Why?"

"He doesn't give a shit. His girlfriend's missing and he's cracking jokes about some girl who might want to hurt her. And did you see the way he was looking at you?" He shook his head again. "No way."

Reyna hummed. "I think you're right. I mean I don't usually guess, but he was a jerk."

"And a creep."

"That too."

They sat in silence for a while, Nico going over what Luke had said in his head and Reyna wondering if she should mention how angry Nico had gotten. It was pretty obvious that he wasn't over Thalia.

Eventually Nico excused himself for lunch and left Reyna sitting in the office staring at the back of the computer and thinking that maybe they shouldn't have taken this case.

* * *

Everything hurt. Her eye throbbed and her lip stung with the silent tears that she was trying to stop from rolling down her face. There were three men in the room with her, two watching her trying not to writhe in pain and the other carefully cutting off her shirt.

She was tied to a concrete wall. They had her in a standing position, even though she didn't think she'd be able to hold herself standing if they let her go. They'd started by hitting her across the face, and moved on to burning her arms with a hot iron. Now her shirt was off, her bra still on, and Thalia wasn't sure what they were going to do.

The man in front of her holding the knife turned to look at the two men watching. "Can't we have some fun with her?" His voice was high and slightly squeaky.

The man on the left shook his head. He was the same one who'd come in to talk to her the night before. He was standing with his arms crossed and an impassive look on his face. Occasionally the man next to him would lean over and say something in a low voice and his expression would change, but now he just looked bored. "Not now. And besides, I get her first when we do. Finish up." He turned to the man next to him. "You got the camera?"

The other man nodded and held up a black digital camera. It didn't look particularly expensive, but Thalia's vision was slightly blurred. "Now?" the man asked.

The second man, who seemed to be in charge, shook his head again. "When I say."

The third man nodded, and the first man, (Thalia called him Rat because of his face, which was the most disgusting face she'd ever seen and did look like a rat's) turned back to her. He reached down and unbuckled his belt, and Thalia expected the leader man to tell him to stop. But he didn't, and Rat held up the belt and swung it, whipping her across the stomach. Thalia bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, but tried her best not to move. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction.

Without turning, Leader-Man said, "Give him the towel."

The man next to him, who Thalia had nicknamed Baby Cakes because of the tattoo on his arm, walked to the corner of the room and picked up a wet towel. He gave it to Rat and returned to his place beside Leader-Man.

Rat whipped Thalia with the towel like he had with the belt. It stung horribly, and Thalia could feel it widening the wounds from the belt even wider.

"I don't like 'em bloody," Baby Cakes commented, like they were watching a movie. His voice was deep. He reminded Thalia of a boulder – big and dumb.

Actually, that was an insult to boulders.

Leader-Man's face split into a shit-eating grin. "Becha he gets off on it, huh?"

Rat turned around and grinned, too, but he was missing his three teeth and had a scar on the left side of his mouth, so it was sort of lopsided. He was by far the creepiest of all of them. "I likes it when they scream."

Thalia gave a weak chuckle. "I don't think you'd be able to make me scream," she said breathlessly, ignoring the pain in her jaw when she moved it.

Rat laughed. It was high pitched, like his voice. "You'd be surprised." He leaned closer, and Thalia almost gagged. His breath smelled like sauerkraut.

But instead she smirked. "I'm not so into the whole bondage thing. Chains really don't turn me on."

"You're not the one who needs to be turned on, sweetheart," Leader-Man cut in.

Thalia looked up at him and spit some blood onto the concrete floor. "Sorry, boys, but I don't put out on the first date."

Rat laughed again and dropped the towel. He raised his fist and hit her across the face.

The blows kept coming, until Thalia stopped being able to hear over the ringing in her ears. She looked down, but instead of Rat standing there, it was Luke, his fist raised, his eyes livid.

She wondered if anyone had called the police. Annabeth would have, wouldn't she? When Thalia didn't come home, Annabeth would call the police. They'd find her.

Nico was on the police force, wasn't he? She remembered hearing him talking to his friends at graduation about becoming a detective. That was just a few days after they'd broken up. She hadn't been able to look him in the face.

It had been seven years, and she still thought about him. She still missed him.

Rat was back, using the towel again, but on her face this time. It stung, and she wanted to cry, she wanted to sob, she wanted to give up.

She remembered Nico, remembered sitting in his room with him, remembered lying on his bed with him on top of her. Remembered just lying there, his arms around her, her face on his chest, just breathing. It was one of the few times she'd been able to breath.

As her eyes began to close she heard him laughing. He wasn't laughing at her, just laughing, and it was the most beautiful sound she'd ever heard.

A sudden wave of wet and cold brought her back to reality and Nico's laugh stopped. It was just her and Leader-Man and Baby Cakes and Rat in a concrete room with no windows, lit only by a lightbulb above their heads. They'd poured a bucket of water on her.

In her half-conscious state she noticed a flash, and briefly remembered the camera. Was this some kind of sick fetish? Tying girls up and torturing them? Did they find some sort of pleasure in this?

She felt someone unlocking the chains that held her up. Arms wrapped around her and carried her away. She thought she might have muttered Nico's name, but she couldn't be sure.

She felt the arms lay her down on the cold concrete floor of her little room just before the world went dark.

**This chapter made me happy. I have a thing for torture scenes, I love writing them, I love reading them. I know, I'm weird. I also like writing about creepy people. And I've always wanted to write about a character named Rat. Baby Cakes comes from the part of the second book when Percy plays dodge ball with a bunch of giants, and one of them has Baby Cakes tattooed on his arm.**

**If you don't want to hear me whining, skip this paragraph. I have had the worst day I can ever remember having. I fractured my foot yesterday, and now it's killing me. I went to the hospital and they gave me a brace. I have to wear it for six to eight weeks. That's through Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'll probably have it off by Christmas. And hopefully I'll be off crutches by Thanksgiving. But for now I have to get around my school on crutches, and explain to every single person I meet that I fell while wearing my mother's shoes that were just a little bit too big for me. At church, too. And I have to ask someone to go with me to every class because I can't carry my own damn bag.**

**Okay, I'm done.**

**I'm still working on the new one-shot, I'm a lot farther on it than I was two weeks ago. I have no idea when it will be up, I'm hoping soon. It's totally cliche, and I'm okay with that. I love it anyway.**

**I'm also working on the first chapter of a new story, but I make no promises on that one. It may end up being your Christmas present.**

**No news on the girl who went missing. There was a candle ceremony thing at the park a few weeks ago, but I don't know what that will do. There have been all sorts of things, people handing out ribbons, moments of silence, fundraisers for her family. I don't know how any of this is going to help find her. I guess they just want to make people feel better. And from what I've heard, her mother's a wreck, but really, who can blame her? Her daughter's fifteen.**

**Quote of the Week: "I promised the aardvark that I would buy him a Thanksgiving collar." My mother said that to me on Saturday morning. Yes, we have an aardvark. His name is Al. Xavier Pierre Aladocious, actually. X.P. Aladocious. My dad named him. And if you don't get the joke, go watch Mary Poppins. Watch it anyway, actually. It's a great movie. He's a stuffed animal, but people freak out when I tell them that I have an aardvark. Even if he's really my dad's.**

**Review, and I'll see you (sort of) in two weeks!**


	5. Chapter 5

**GUEST: Thanks, I try.**

**Guest: Yeah, people are stupid about that kind of thing. I write a lot about abused kids and torture, I have one where the girl is being tortured by her aunt and her aunt stabs her in the ear with a dagger made of ice. Thank you, I hope my foot gets better too.**

**Mrs-diAngelo25: That's what I was going for, Luke being a douche. And I love writing the kidnappers, Rat's my favorite. He's so creepy, it's so much fun. I wasn't planning on having this story be as romantic as it's becoming, but hey, I'm just the writer. Characters do what they want. I like to think of myself like the Gamemakers in the Hunger Games: I don't control what the player do but I can put things in their way. Like how they put in the mutts at the end of the first book. Don't worry, I have fangirl attacks over fanfiction too. I feel very proud. I find that Mondays aren't usually any worse than any other day, that particular one was terrible. Hey, I finished the one-shot and the first chapter of the new story for today! I'm so excited! And the aardvark is a stuffed animal, not a real pet. Thank God.**

**SummerSpirit18: God, you have no idea how much I wish I could tell you what I mean. Wait, you can't keep your mouth shut now! You've got me all excited! I love hearing people's ideas for my stories, and sometimes I actually use them. Not always, but please tell me anyway! That was sort of the point, Luke being a total jerk. Don't worry, the punching of Luke will come. Promise. And it's totally not accidental. Thalia has always seemed like the kind of person who always keeps her nerve, no matter what.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson, McDonald's, Dairy Queen, or the poster described. I do own Rat, Leader-Man, and Baby Cakes.**

**Chapter 5**

Nico ran his hand over the plaque next to the door. _Chase_, the plaque said, and under it, _Grace_. It was the _Grace_ that made his breath catch in his throat. The last time he'd seen a little brass plaque that said _Grace_ on it was when he was slamming the door in her face.

"This one's different," Reyna said quietly. She was standing next to him staring at his hand on the bronze plaque. "It's harder."

Nico stared at the plaque for a few more seconds. "It's my job."

"You still love her."

He shook his head. "I never loved her."

"But you miss her."

His silence told her all she needed to know.

Reyna sighed. "Just don't do anything rash, okay?"

Nico didn't answer. He moved his hand down to press the little white button next to the door. A few minutes later there was a sound behind the door and it opened to reveal a dark haired man with the greenest eyes Nico and Reyna had ever seen. "Can I help you?" he asked, running a hand through jet-black hair. He looked tired and stressed.

"We're looking for Annabeth Chase," Reyna said. She usually took the lead out of the office. Nico was good at asking questions, but Reyna was better with people.

The man glanced over his shoulder back into the apartment, then looked back at them. "I don't think now is a good time. Maybe in a couple days?"

"My name is Detective Nico di Angelo, this is my partner Reyna Ramirez-Arellano. We work with the New York Police Department. We're investigating Thalia Grace's disappearance. We just want to take a look around."

"We can come back later if you'd like," Reyna added.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry. We've been getting a lot of well-wishers," the man said, a small smile playing on his lips. "I'm Percy Jackson, Annabeth's boyfriend. Please, come in."

He stepped back to let them through. The first room was painted a very light gray and had a few pairs of shoes neatly lined up against the right and left walls. Percy led them down a hallway that led to a small kitchen. The counters were a cranberry color and there was a small island in the middle of the room. The walls were a faded sort of red. Nico noticed a magnet on the refrigerator that screamed Thalia. It was black and said "When I die, I'm haunting you first". He smiled.

There were two doors in the kitchen, other than the one they'd just come through. Percy took the one on the left. Through it was a room with a couch and two armchairs facing a television with a coffee table in between. The walls were butter yellow, and the sun that came through the three big windows made it a very cheery room. Nico could help but think, though, that it must have gotten very cold in the winter.

Annabeth was sitting on the couch, her hands wrapped around a mug of what Nico thought was hot chocolate. She looked up when they walked in. "Hi," she said, sounding slightly surprised. "Can I help you?"

"We just wanted to take a look around, if that's okay," Nico answered.

Annabeth nodded and Nico turned to Reyna. "You go ahead, I'm going to talk to them a little." Reyna nodded and walked through the second door out of the living room. Nico took a seat in one of the armchairs.

"Anything new?" Annabeth asked. Her tone was hopeful.

"We talked to Thalia's boyfriend."

Percy snorted and Nico looked at him. "Sorry, is something funny?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Luke's an idiot. There's no way he did something like this."

"Well, we have to look in to him."

"Of course," Annabeth said, interrupting whatever Percy was about to say. "Do you have any suspects? Do you know anything?"

Nico gave an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Miss Chase, I can't tell you."

"Right." Annabeth looked back down at her drink.

"Mr. Jackson, can you tell me what you thought of Thalia?" Nico asked, turning to look at the other man.

"Call me Percy, please." He cleared his throat. "Thalia was a good friend. She wasn't always nice," he chuckled, "actually, she wasn't ever nice. But she was funny. And she cared about Annabeth. The first time we met she threatened to cut off my balls if I hurt Annabeth."

"And feed them to you," Annabeth added, laughing. "She spent that whole dinner trying to scare you."

"It worked. I couldn't be alone in a room with her for three weeks."

Nico chuckled. That sounded exactly like Thalia.

"You used to date Thalia, right?" Percy asked.

Nico cleared his throat and nodded.

"She made you out to be a real jackass. Maybe you changed. You don't seem like a jackass."

"Thanks. I think," Nico said, a fake smile on his face. He really didn't want to have this conversation. He hadn't done anything to her. He would never have hurt her. "How did you and Annabeth meet?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Percy laughed. "I ran into her in Central Park. I was running."

"Made me spill my coffee all over my shirt. I was late for work."

"Where do you work, Percy?"

"I coach swimming at Goode High School."

Nico put his face in his hands, laughing. "God, I went there."

Percy grinned. "You didn't think Goode was good?" Nico laughed and lifted his head up. Annabeth slapped Percy's arm. "Sorry. I had to do it."

"Percy," Nico said, still grinning. "Can you think of anyone who might have a reason to hurt Thalia?"

Percy's face turned somber again. He shook his head. "Not seriously. She might not have been the greatest people person, but she knew where to draw the line. I can't think of anyone who hated her that much." He glanced up at Reyna, who'd just entered the room again. "Is that what you think happened? Someone hurt her?"

Annabeth drew in a small, sharp breath. She was biting her lip and her eyes were full of unshed tears.

"Do you think it was murder?" Percy continued in a shaking voice.

Nico shook his head. "There's no reason yet to suspect murder."

"Yet," Annabeth broke in. "So there might be? At some point?"

"It's possible," Reyna answered, stepping forward to stand next to her partner. "It's always a possibility. But as far as we know there's no one who would want to hurt Thalia. That's what everyone has been telling us. Can you think of any reason why Thalia might have run away?"

Annabeth shook her head. "She would have told me."

_Thalia wasn't the running type_, Nico wanted to add, but he didn't. Instead he looked up at Reyna. "I'll be right back. I just want to take a look around."

Reyna nodded, and as soon as Nico had stood up she took his chair. He made his way through the door that Reyna had come through. There was a small dining room with a table that fit six chairs, along with a cabinet that Nico supposed held candles and fancy dishes and silverware. Another door way led to another hall with three doors. The one at the very end led to a bathroom. The one on the left was to a bedroom painted a light blue with a bed with white pillows and a white quilt. The room across the hall was dark red. The quilt on the bed was black. The pillows were blue. Nico could tell it was Thalia's. If the colors hadn't been a give away, the Green Day posters lining the walls would have been.

Nico sat down on the bed. Thalia had always loved Green Day, it was the first thing they'd learned about each other. They had the same favorite band.

"Notice anything?" came a voice from the doorway. Nico looked up to see Reyna leaning against the frame with her arms crossed. She straightened up and made her way over to him, sitting down next to him on the bed. "I guess she liked Green Day."

Nico smiled and pointed to the biggest poster in the room. It was right across from the bed. It was a picture of the 21st Century Breakdown car and two people kissing, but instead of Christian and Gloria kissing on top of the car, it was Billie Joe Armstrong and his wife Adrienne. "I gave her that," he said. He remembered the day he had. It was her birthday. She'd been so excited.

"I guess she liked it."

"Yeah."

Reyna looked around the room. "Look at all the pictures," she said, pointing. There was a section of the wall devoted to photographs. Most of them featured Thalia, but a few were just Annabeth or just Percy or Percy and Annabeth together, or a brown haired girl that neither detective recognized. "What do you notice? Or not notice?"

Nico looked for a while, then frowned and stood up to examine the pictures closely. "There aren't any of her boyfriend."

"Exactly," Reyna said, nodding. "They've been dating for nearly a year, and she hasn't got a single picture of the two of them.

"Not true, actually." Nico pointed to a small cluster of pictures. Three of them were of Luke and Thalia. They were at some sort of amusement park. There was a roller coaster in the background of one of them.

"Still, only three."

Nico hummed, thinking. "We should get back," he said finally.

"Wait," Reyna stopped him. She reached into her pocket and pulled out another picture. "I found this under the pillow. I thought you might want to see it."

It was a picture of Thalia when she was eighteen. And Nico when he was the same age. They were kissing.

Nico ran a hand through his hair and handed the picture back to Reyna. "Put it back," he said, almost a whisper.

Reyna nodded and did so.

"Come on." She put a hand on his back. "Let's go back to the station."

They walked together back to the living room, thanked both Percy and Annabeth, and left.

After they were gone, Annabeth turned to Percy and said, "I think he still likes her."

Percy laughed loudly. "You think?"

* * *

"Okay, next time, just take me to McDonald's."

"I'm sorry! It's the curse of the fancy restaurants, I'm telling you. Hey, don't laugh, it's a real thing."

"At least this time you remembered your wallet."

"Somehow, I think spilling Mountain Dew all over my only nice shirt is a bit worse."

"Yes, but now you can pay for another Mountain Dew."

"Piper, my shirt is _bright yellow_."

Piper laughed. "It's your own fault for drinking Mountain Dew. That stuff is disgusting."

"But it tastes so good," Jason protested, wiping furiously at his shirt and groaning. "It's not coming off."

Piper laughed again and picked up her purse. "Maybe we should go. You're embarrassing yourself."

"I'll take you to DQ, I promise. I'm really sorry."

"It's okay," Piper said. She leaned across the table to kiss her boyfriend of eight months. When she leaned back she gave him and evil grin. "But I'm still telling Leo."

"Piper!" Jason groaned.

Piper laughed and stood up. Jason pulled out his wallet, placed a ten on the table (it wasn't _that_ fancy a restaurant and they'd only ordered their drinks), and followed her.

"I'm going to kill you," he yelled across the parking lot. He couldn't see her, but he supposed she'd already gotten to the car.

But she didn't answer. He'd made it halfway to the car when he noticed the lump on the ground.

"Piper?" he called. She was lying on the ground, her eyes closed, her head bleeding. "Piper!" he said, more urgently. He shook her shoulder, but she didn't move. He pulled out his phone and was beginning to dial when something hit him over the head. The last thing he saw was his girlfriend's unconscious face.

* * *

The door swung open, revealing a stream of light. Rat walked through dragging something behind him. Thalia squinted to see what it was.

"Got a friend for you, precious," Rat said, grinning. Leader-Man's voice was greasy, but Rat's made Thalia's skin crawl. Rat dropped a pair of sneaker-clad feet beside her unceremoniously and knelt down. He ran a fingernail down her cheek. "Delicious," he whispered, his hot breath making her gag. He grinned at her again and stood up. "Don't have too much fun without me, hmm, beautiful?"

Thalia glared at spat a mixture of saliva and blood at his feet. He laughed his high, squeaking laugh, but didn't say anything. He just left, slamming the door behind him.

Thalia couldn't see much of the boy in the dark. She could tell that he was a boy, and probably not out of high school yet. Sixteen or seventeen, maybe. He had blonde hair, and part of it was shiny and slick with blood. It seemed they had done the same thing to him as they had to her.

She sighed. What did they want? Why had they kidnapped her and this boy? She didn't even know him.

Were she and the boy ever going to get out?

**Surprise! I have a new chapter for you! And it's early! I was going to upload Monday, but the library was closed, and then I forgot my flashdrive at home yesterday so I couldn't upload then, either. But it's still early, and I still plan to upload next Monday, too. I'm about half done with the next chapter.  
**

**I loved writing this chapter, I feel like I say that a lot. But it's true every time. I especially loved writing the part when Nico is in Thalia's room. And the part with Jason and Piper. I like Jason and Piper sometimes. Sometimes I like Jason and Reyna better, but obviously that doesn't work for this story.**

**Has anyone here ever watched the TV show Bones? It's about a forensic anthropologist and an FBI agent who work together to solve murder cases. It's amazing. I keep feeling like I'm writing a Bones episode. Except there's no Bones. Reyna reminds me more of Cam. Except she doesn't do autopsies.**

**My foot is still fractured, unfortunately. I got an MRI done today. I lay on a bed for forty-five minutes while a big machine clicked and buzzed and made other sounds. This lady in the other room kept going, "It's okay, don't worry, it's just the machine". I managed to fracture the hardest bone in my foot to heal, so I'll be in this boot/cast/thing for at least eight weeks. I also might have torn a ligament, that's why I got the MRI done. On the x-ray the space between my big toe and my second toe is really wide, so they had to check. But I know it's not torn, I just have feet like a duck. Very wide and very flat.**

**My little brother destroyed my lab book the other day. I was ready to strangle him. He didn't realize it was mine so he tore out all the pages with writing on them. Then he tore them in half. I put a lot of work into my lab book, my teacher told me it's better than a lot of college students' lab books. It's almost as bad as if he had destroyed my writing notebook. Almost. But he wouldn't have gotten his hands on that, I keep it in my bag and I keep my bag next to me. All the time.  
**

**My doctor gave me a note to let me stay home from school last week, that's why I got this chapter done so soon.**

**I also finished the first chapter of my new story, it's called White Rose. I'm going to post it as soon as I finish this. It's an AU Thalico story. It's not really a high school story, even though for the majority of the story they are in high school. Nico meets Thalia on the playground when he's in Kindergarten and they become friends, but when he introduces her to his sister he realizes that he's the only one who can see her.**

**And I finished the long one-shot I've been working on. It's called Terrible. It's an High School AU Thalico story. Thalia and Nico have hated each other for years, they spend all of their time arguing. Then their teacher assigns them a project. It's humorous, romantic, and there's a little bit of angst, too. And it's completely cliche and I don't care.**

**I know a lot of FanFiction authors take requests. Some people might think that's weird, I don't think there's anything wrong with using someone else's idea if they let you. So if you have any requests, just PM me and I'll get back to you. Thanks!**

**Quote of the Week: "Sweetie, no one else puts black powder on their Christmas list." My brother wanted to know how Mom knew that the Christmas list she was talking about was his. Someday I swear he's going to destroy the house.**

**Go read White Rose and Terrible and review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Mrs-diAngelo25: Well, let me know when your birthday is and I'll upload a special one-shot for you. Actually, you may have already told me. July, right? If you almost died when Nico was in Thalia's room, just be sure to have a defibrillator around when you read this chapter. I personally think that the first part of this was very emotional.  
*I don't usually respond to one-shot reviews, but your review for Terrible made me very happy. So thank you.**

**XxNico'sGirlxX: Thank you! I'd love to hear your idea, you can leave it in a review, that's fine.**

**SummerSpirit18: I will say nothing about the plot of this story. And I will make no promises for the safety of anyone. Hehe.  
*Like I told Mrs-diAngelo25, I don't usually respond to one-shot reviews. But I decided yours deserved a response. Okay, one, I don't know what ucraina is, but I think it's swearing. I looked it up and all I got was that it's the French word for Ukraine, and I'm pretty sure that's not what you were going for. This story is rated M for violence, not porn. Out of curiosity, if I did write porn, would you read it? I don't think I could even if I tried, and I don't plan on trying. Actually, I don't really like Tim Burton, just his Alice in Wonderland. Okay, I'm done responding to a review for a completely different story. I probably could have PMed you, but oh well.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson or the Harry Potter Theme song. I do own Marissa.**

**Chapter 6**

Hazel Levesque wasn't really Nico's half sister. She had been adopted after Nico found her on a street corner one day when he was fifteen and she twelve. She had run away from her mother in New Orleans and managed to make it to New York City. She was bruised and bleeding and had a broken wrist, and Nico had helped her to a hospital.

After his father's initial panic attack when he heard that his son was at the hospital, Nico was able to explain what had happened and Hades came down to the hospital, along with the police. The police talked to Hazel and allowed her to stay with the di Angelos for a while until they were able to look in to her mother. They decided that her mother wasn't a suitable parent and after a long while during which Hades, Nico, and Hazel all had to go to court more times than they would have liked the court granted custody to Hades di Angelo. Hazel had fit in immediately, she was used to strange families and compared to her own family life with Hades and Nico was a breeze.

Nico had taken to calling her his half-sister because it was easier than saying that she was his "adopted sister sort of", as he had when she'd first moved in. And Hazel never complained, in fact she introduced him as her half-brother, too. The only thing she ever really complained about was the fact that he treated her like a little sister, and Nico knew that secretly she loved that, too.

Reyna was the first person Hazel had ever dated who Nico hadn't scared away. It was because of Nico that Reyna and Hazel had met, actually. Hazel had come with him to a New Years party with the rest of their department, which of course included Reyna. The two girls had hit it off immediately trading embarrassing stories about Nico (which he _certainly_ wasn't going to repeat any time soon, or ever). Reyna had come to him a few days later at work and asked his permission to ask his sister out, which was the first time anyone had done anything of the sort, so he'd said yes.

That had been three years ago, and they were still together. Nico was just waiting for Reyna to come and ask his permission to propose.

They'd grown up and moved out of their father's house, but around Hazel's nineteenth birthday she'd lost her job because her boss was a jerk, and she couldn't pay the rent on her apartment so Nico had asked her to move in with him. Three years later they were still living in the same little apartment. Nico's work schedule was complicated and constantly changing, so he was home at odd hours. But Hazel had made him promise to be around for dinner at least once a week. In the three years that they'd been living together, Nico had broken that promise maybe twice. And once was because he was in the hospital after taking down a drug ring. They'd had their dinner at the hospital.

So that was why Nico left the station at six o'clock one Wednesday evening when he had nothing better to do than paperwork and went home. Hazel was waiting with Chinese takeout and a bottle of wine – which immediately put Nico on guard, because that was his favorite, Hazel's was pizza, and it was her turn to pick. She only did that when she wanted something.

"What do you want?" was the first thing he asked when they were both sitting down at the table piling their plates high with deliciousness.

"Scallion pancakes," she replied. He handed her the box and she very nearly emptied it onto her plate. "You had a hard week," she said after she'd put the box down and taken a bit of one of the pancakes. "I thought you deserved it."

Nico narrowed his eyes at her, but she just looked at him, so he knew she was telling the truth. When she was lying her eyes got wide like she was playing innocent.

"Thanks." He took a bite of his sesame beef.

She shrugged. "I know how you were with Thalia. You barely came out of your room for a week after she broke up with you. And now you have to find her. How're you holding up?"

"Fine, I guess," he answered, staring at his pile of impossibly white rice.

"Don't."

He looked up at her. "Don't what?"

"Don't try to lie to me. I know you, Nico. You'll bottle everything up until you can't take it and then you'll break down. And I _hate_ it. And so does Reyna. And Dad." She reached across the table and laid her hand on his. "So talk to me."

Nico dropped his fork onto his plate and rested his forehead against his palm. He sighed. "I tried to forget about her. I did forget about her. And now she's missing, and I just don't know what happened."

"And it's driving you crazy."

He nodded. Sometimes he hated that she knew him so well. This wasn't one of those times.

"Any suspects?"

"Hazel, you know I can't talk about that," he sighed.

She took her hand off his and rolled her eyes. "I'm going to find out one way or another, and you know I'm not going to say anything."

She was right, Nico knew. He could trust her. And if he didn't tell her, she'd get it from Reyna.

He sighed again. "No one. The roommate is distraught, her boyfriend has an alibi, and he wouldn't have done it anyway. He cares about his girlfriend too much. And Thalia's boyfriend doesn't care enough."

"What do you mean?" Hazel asked, wrinkling her nose. It looked strange combined with the movement of chewing.

"He doesn't give a shit. We brought him in to talk to him, he was cracking jokes and laughing. He even talked about this one girl who might have wanted to hurt Thalia like it was no big deal."

"You wanted to hit him, didn't you?"

"Yes!" Nico exploded, the pent up frustration and stress of the past week and a half combining into a storm of emotion inside of him. He stood up and put his hand into his hair. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply. "Yes. He doesn't care about her. She's missing and he doesn't even care."

Hazel looked at her brother with sadness in her eyes. She knew how much it was hurting him. She remembered how much he had cared about Thalia.

She stood up and wrapped her arms around him, rubbing soothing circles on his back. Eventually he relaxed and hugged her back. He put his face into her hair. It had been a while since he'd cried, but now he felt like he wanted to.

"I thought I could get over her," he whispered.

Hazel hugged him tighter. "Nico, it's been seven years. If you aren't over her now, you're never going to be."

He chuckled. "I guess you're right. Still sucks, though."

She pulled back and smiled at him. "Come on. You've got boneless spare ribs calling your name."

* * *

The TV was playing some comedy show, but Reyna wasn't paying attention. Her hands were wrapped around a mug of chamomile tea loaded with milk and honey and she was wearing a purple tank top and a pair of fuzzy black pajama pants. She felt a bit like a college student, but since she hadn't actually gone to college she decided it was okay, and there wasn't anyone there anyway.

Reyna had grown up in Puerto Rico with a sister and a mother, no father. Her mother worked as a waitress in a diner near their house. Bellona, her mother, had been a very intelligent, very strong woman. She had dropped out of high school when she was seventeen because her family needed money, so she had never gone to college. Reyna and her sister Hylla had grown up with very little money and had been left alone as their mother had to work most of the time, but it was always made clear to them that school was most important. Hylla was a perfect student; straight As, awards, AP classes. She had gotten into a great college in California and flown off to become a doctor when Reyna was 16.

Reyna had finished high school with As and Bs. She was smart, she worked hard, and her mother was proud of her because she did her best. But she wasn't as good as Hylla and she preffered more physical things, especially martial arts. So after graduation she moved to New York City and became a police detective.

Bellona was always working and Hylla was always studying, so Reyna had learned to take care of herself. She didn't like being dependent on people, which was one of the reasons she'd started taking martial arts. Somehow her dislike of being dependent had morphed into a dislike of people in general. Her attraction to Hazel had surprised her, but she'd just gone with it, and she was glad that she had. Hazel and Nico had helped her to open up to people, and Nico had become her best friend.

Which was why she hated this case so much. She didn't partifularly like kidnapping cases to begin with, she always felt that it was her fault when something went wrong. But this was different. Nico was breaking, she could see it. She'd never heard of Thalia Grace before the case, but she'd watched Nico's relationship fly by over the years. His longest one lasted for six months, and he always compared his girlfriends to someone. Reyna had never known who, but she'd hoped he would be able to get together with whoever it was.

It was Thalia Grace. She had known it the moment he'd told her that he'd dated Thalia. The look in his eyes every time he talked about her showed that he wasn't over her, not nearly.

The whole situation frustrated Reyna. Nico was her partner, she was supposed to be able to help him. But she didn't know how. She supposed the only way would be to find her. But they had no leads, no suspects. They didn't know anything. She was just gone.

Reyna wanted to talk to the family, but so far they hadn't been able to contact the father, and the mother had been dead for six years. They'd already talked to the people at Thalia's work, and even some of the customers, and they hadn't given any new information, just that she'd left work and hadn't come in the next morning when she was supposed to.

One woman, Marissa, had said that Thalia always walked home through a part of the city that wasn't very good, and that a lot of creepy people who hung out there. Reyna hadn't been able to look Nico in the eye. They'd known there was a possibility that she'd been hurt or killed, but it was starting to feel more plausible.

Reyna's phone rang, jarring her out of her thoughts. She smiled at the ring tone: the Harry Potter theme song. Although she would never admit it, Hazel loved Harry Potter, and she'd set the theme song as her ring tone on Reyna's phone. Reyna picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey." Hazel sounded tired.

Reyna straightened up. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." She sighed. "Nico's not."

"Oh, tonight was your dinner."

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"He flipped out. He's frustrated."

"We both are."

"No," Hazel sighed again, "It's different. Rey, you didn't know him before Thalia. I thought maybe he could get over it."

"But he can't." Reyna leaned forward and put her head in the hand not holding the phone.

"Not now. Not with this case. And it doesn't matter whether you find her or not. If you don't, he'll blame himself, if you do and she's hurt, he'll blame himself, if you do and she's not hurt, seeing her will be enough."

And Reyna knew that. She just didn't see a way out. She'd known Nico for years. She might not have known him before Thalia, but she'd seen pictures. She knew that something had changed. She just hadn't known that it was Thalia.

"Does he have any pictures? Of them together?"

Hazel paused. "I don't know. Why?"

"I just want to see them."

"I can check."

Reyna smiled softly. "Thanks. You better go. Make sure he gets enough sleep, 'kay?"

"Okay. I love you."

"Love you too."

* * *

The sky was still dark when Piper opened her eyes, so she hadn't been out for very long. Her head hurt, and the ringing sound coming from her bag wasn't helping. Wincing, Piper sat up and dug through her purse for her phone.

"Hello?" she said without checking caller ID.

"Piper?" came the voice through the static. "Hey, where are you?"

Piper blinked hard. "The restaurant, I think."

"Where's Jason?"

She looked around. "I don't know."

"Are you okay?" Leo asked. He sounded concerned.

Piper blinked again and put her hand on the ground to stand up. She froze for a moment while her vision swam. Whatever had hit her on the head had done it pretty hard. "Let's go with no," she answered after a moment. "What time is it?"

"Two in the morning. That's why I called. I thought maybe you guys had…you know."

Piper chuckled. "Don't worry, Leo, your brother is still pure."

Jason had been adopted by Leo's mother when they were eleven. He'd been in foster care before then. He didn't know who his parents were, they'd given him up at birth, and he didn't care to find out. To him, Leo and his mother were family, and that was all that mattered.

"So where is he?"

Well that was the question, wasn't it? Piper glanced around the parking lot, but it was as empty as it had been when they'd gotten there at seven. "I don't know. We were walking out of the restaurant and something hit me on the head. I guess it knocked me out. But his car's still here."

"I don't care about the car, where is he?" Leo's voice had become frantic now. "What knocked you out?"

"A person, I think. I don't know, I didn't see anything." Piper froze as she noticed something on the ground. She knelt down to get a closer look.

"Piper? Piper?" Leo snapped her out of her reverie.

"Leo," Piper began, before choking on her words.

"What?"

She swallowed. "Leo, there's blood on the ground. Not where I was. It's not mine."

Leo didn't answer, but she could almost hear him having a panic attack. "Call the cops," he said in a shaky voice. "No, don't call the cops. I'll call them. Where are you, I'll come pick you up."

Piper put a hand to her head. Her vision was swimming again and her head was pounding. She removed her fingers and realized she had been bleeding.

"Peach Tree," she managed. "The restaurant. It's off…"

"I know where it is," Leo interrupted. "Okay, Pipes, just sit tight until I get there, okay?"

She nodded until she realized he couldn't see her. "Okay."

"Good. I'll be there soon."

"Bye," she said, and pressed the end button with shaking fingers. She leaned back against the car. Something had happened to Jason. She didn't quite know what, but it was bad. She could feel it.

Someone was hurting Jason.

**I don't know if this is killing you, but it's killing me. I've got an outline for this story, and we have another six chapters before we even start getting into what happened, and eight before they find her. Yes, they do find her. But that doesn't mean anything. Those of you who have read my other stories know that.**

**I'm back to my Mondays update schedule. I have the next chapter finished so I'll be uploading next Monday. And if I can get to the library on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I might have a Thanksgiving one-shot up. I haven't started it, but I'm thinking something fluffy and family related. Like Nico and Thalia with children on Thanksgiving. Maybe. I don't know what you think of that.**

**I have to say, this story is turning out a lot more romantic than I thought it would. I hadn't planned on Thalia leaving any lasting damage on Nico, but that's the way it worked out. I think it makes the ending I have planned just that much better.**

**My favorite part of this chapter was the first part with Nico and Hazel. I've never written anything with those two. I've always liked writing family scenes. Almost as much as I like writing torture scenes.**

**My mother decided it was a good idea to force Saturday school on my brother and sister and me. So now she gives us an assignment, something to read or a worksheet to complete or something, and we finish it for Saturday. And then we discuss. It's terrible. I don't know my multiplication tables, so my mom made my ten year old brother and sister quiz me. She insists that our school system doesn't teach us what it should and that fifth graders are capable of so much more than they're doing, so she's taking it upon herself to teach us.**

**Okay, I don't know how many of you are musical, but music is pretty much my life. I've been singing for as long as I can remember, I play seven instruments (some of them were forced upon me, but I play them) and my family's idea of a gathering is sitting around a table or on a porch playing guitars and harmonicas and singing. Even the little kids get maracas. So I met this girl in chorus the other day, she joined my group for a song my friend and I are working on, and she can't sing. She's completely tone deaf, she has no sense of rhythm, I don't know why she would join chorus. I tried teaching her the song, she can't even tap out a beat on a drum. A simple beat. It drove me up a wall trying to teach her for an hour and a half.**

**I saw Thor 2:The Dark World this weekend! It was amazing! I'm not going to say anything about the plot because I don't want to ruin it for you, but it was amazing.**

**And I'm going to see Catching Fire next weekend, I'm so excited. I'm counting down the days.**

**Again, for anyone interested, I'm taking requests, just to see how it goes. You can PM me, which I prefer, but if you don't have an account or just don't want to PM me, feel free to leave your request in a review.**

**Quote of the Week: "Are those people walking a llama?" My mom and I were driving home one night and we were talking, and all of a sudden Mom stopped in the middle of her sentence and asked if the people in the parking lot of one of the stores were walking a llama.**

**Review and go read the newest chapter of White Rose!**


End file.
